Grant: Project Grant

Breast cancer (BC) is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women mostly due to metastases and advanced recurrence, which are normally resistant to conventional chemotherapy. Among various subtypes, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a particularly aggressive subtype that accounts for ~15% of all types of BC. It occurs in younger women and has a poor prognosis. TNBC patients relapse, develop distant metastases sooner and have significantly shorter overall survival than non-TNBC patients, owing to the lack of effective drug treatment. Dr. Wu has discovered a new treatment strategy that utilizes synergistic effect a biomaterial and an anticancer drug wrapped in tiny particles, namely nanoparticles. The nanoparticles will seek cancer cells, enter the cancer cells, and release the drugs inside and surround the cancer cells. In this project, Dr. Wu and team will further advance the design and test this new nanomedicine for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer, which is expected to reduce tumor growth and spread to other organs such as the lungs and the brain. This work is expected to generate a safe, effective and affordable therapeutic approach to address the unmet medical need for treatment of TNBC.